Daily Prayers for July 10

Toyohiko Kagawa (1888 – 1960)

Toyohiko Kagawa was a Japanese pacifist, Christian reformer, evangelist, and labor activist. He wrote, spoke, and worked at length on ways to employ Christian principles in the ordering of society. His vocation to help the poor led him to live among them, and he established schools, hospitals, and churches. He was also an innovator and a critical thinker, in everything from economics and theology to cutting-edge gardening techniques. One of his great lines is, “I read in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good. It is very disconcerting to me that I am so easily satisfied with just going about.”

O Lord, let my soul rise up to meet you

as the day rises to meet the sun.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

Come, let us bow down and bend the knee : let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

Song “We Shall Overcome”

Deliver us from ourselves, O God : and bring us home to life with you.

Psalm 53:1 – 3, 6

The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” : All are corrupt and commit abominable acts; there is none who does any good.

God looks down from heaven upon us all : to see if there is any who is wise, if there is one who seeks after God.

Every one has proved faithless; all alike have turned bad : there is none who does good; no, not one.

Oh, that Israel’s deliverance would come out of Zion! : when God restores the fortunes of his -people Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.

Deliver us from ourselves, O God : and bring us home to life with you.

Judges 8:22 – 35 Acts 18:1 – 11

Deliver us from ourselves, O God : and bring us home to life with you.

John Wesley, an eighteenth-century British evangelist and church reformer, said, “I believe the merciful God regards the lives and tempers of men more than their ideas. I believe he respects the goodness of the heart, rather than the clearness of the head.”

Prayers for Others

Our Father

Lord God, thank you that we are unable to save ourselves and that each time we try, we fail. Have mercy on us. Be the strength in our weakness. Clear our heads of the foolishness of believing we can be our own gods. Steer our hearts to utter dependence on you. Amen.

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you : wherever he may send you;

may he guide you through the wilderness : protect you through the storm;

may he bring you home rejoicing : at the wonders he has shown you;

may he bring you home rejoicing : once again into our doors.